Awareness about Gender and Sexual Harassment

A workshop was conducted by Ashwini Syed, our Head of Operations and HR, at KPB Hinduja College, Mumbai, on 18 July 2017, with the objective of spreading awareness about sexual harassment and safety. As many as fifty students along with NSS members and a college professor participated in the workshop.

The session encouraged responses from the students to talk about the places and circumstances they felt safe in. Being such a personal concept, every member in the audience had a different take on it. Some felt safe in their comfort zone or with their mobile phones, some around their kith and kin, while many others found safety in a positive mind-set. Conversely, they felt unsafe around unknown people, in dim or no lights and were constantly bogged down with negative thoughts.

The students were made aware of the difference between feeling comfortable and feeling safe. It is a common perception that only rape constitutes sexual harassment. The workshop proved fruitful in making students conscious of the fact that sexual harassment is not always a physical assault; it can be mental or verbal too.

A discussion was held where students shared experiences of different people who had encountered such harassment, about which they had read or heard.

The audience participated with great enthusiasm, were keen to learn new concepts and found the workshop very enlightening and informative.